East
Asian
History
NUMBER 22
.
DECEMBER 2001
Institute of Advanced Studies
Australian National University
Editor
Associate Editor
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iii
�
1
CONTENTS
Hedda Morrison's Jehol-a Photographic Journey
Hedda Morrison, images and text
-translatedfrom the German by Herta Imhof, with
introductory essays by Claire Roberts and Geremie R. Barme
129
Bridging the Gap: Attempts at Constructing a "New" Historical-Cultural
Identity in the People's Republic of China
Axel Schneider
145
Making Meiji Muslims: the Travelogue of (Ali AJ:tmad al-JarjawI
Michael F. LajJan
171
Vengeful Gods and Shrewd Men: Responses to the Loss of Sovereignty
on Cheju Island
Michael j. Pettid
iv
Cover calligraphy
Cover illustration
Yan Zhenqing
�JU�J��,
Tang calligrapher and statesman
Photo no.5 from Hedda Morrison's 'Jehol album 1', Hedda Morrison
Collection, Harvard-Yenching Library, Harvard University C© President
and Fellows of Harvard College, Bequest of Hedda Hammer Morrison)
MAKING MEI]I MUSLIMS: THE TRAVELOGUE
OF (ALI AHMAD AL-]AR]A.WI
,J1!.
Michael F. Laffan
This is not so much an article about East Asian history as a description of how,
in 1907, one Egyptian attempted to invite the Japanese to embrace Islam and
thereby to fit Japan into his conception of the East. I should also state from
the outset that the views that he would espouse were by no means unique.
At the beginning of the twentieth century Meiji Japan was often held up in
Muslim societies as an example to be followed, especially as it had defeated
Russia, the arch enemy of the Ottoman Empire, in the war of 1904-05. In Cairo
I am grateful to the anonymous reviewers of
East Asian History for their advice and
corrections. I should also like to express my
appreciation to the Research School of Pacific
and Asian Studies, ANU, for providing me
with the facilities to conduct my research.
Permission to use selected images of Meiji
Japan held by the Nagasaki University Library
Singapore who had strong educational connections with Cairo.2 The scene
("Japanese Old Photographs in Bakumatsu­
Meiji period": <http:www.oldphoto .lb.
nagasaki-u . a c . j p/unive/» is gratefully
acknowledged. Images of Cairo are from
the author'S collection of postcards. Due to
the orthographic irregularities in the Arabic
rendering of Japanese names, no characters
are provided in this text.
was thus already set when, in 1908, 'An Al).mad al-JarjawI, who attended the
1 MU�(afa Kamil, ai-Shams al-mushriqa
in 1904, the nationalist demagogue Mu��afa Kamil Pasha (1876-1908) even
wrote a monograph cataloguing Japan's history and predicting the defeat of
Tsarist Russia. This book, aI-Shams al-mushriqa (The Rising Sun), proved
very popular when released. 1 Indeed, it attracted so much attention that it
was later translated into Malay by a group of Muslim reformers from
1907 Tokyo Congress of Religions, released his travelogue. But al-JarjawI's
account was not just a book about Japan as a modern example for Muslims.
Indeed his book, al-Ril?la al-Yabiin iyya (The Japanese Journey),3 is a
snapshot of key changes affecting Muslims at a time when colonised peoples
were resolving the ambiguities and intersections of Islamic and 'oriental'
identities. Both seemed formulated against a monolithic oppressor that was
both Western and Christian. And whereas Mu��afa Kamil had thrilled to the
military victories of Japan over Russia, al-JarjawI had set off for the Japanese
islands in 1906 with the hope of embracing that victory for all Easterners from
Morocco to China, and of making it the prelude to the greater victory of Islam
over Christianity in the modern world.
145
(Cairo: al-Liwa', 1904), p.5. On this work, its
reception in Southeast Asia and Egyptian
origins, see Michael Laffan, "Watan and
negeri: Mu�tafa Kfunil's 'Rising sun' in the
Malay world," Indonesia Circle 69 ( 1996):
1 56-75; and "Mustafa and the Mikado: a
Francophile Egyptian's turn to Meiji Japan,"
Japanese Studies 1 9 3 (1999): 269-86.
2 Matahari memancar(Singapore: ai-Imam,
1 906)
3 Published in Cairo by al-Irshad, 1908.
146
4 MU�1afa Kfunil, al-Shams al-mushriqa, p . 5 .
5 The details o f the Dinshaway incident,
and the subsequent rise of the nationalists,
are best described in Albert Hourani, Arabic
thought in the liberal age 1798--1939
(London: Cambridge, 1983), pp.20lff.
MICHAEL F. LAFFAN
The Ril)la, its Context and Protagonists
For the affordable sum of ten piastres, a well-read Egyptian would have
been perhaps interested enough in 1908 to buy the travelogue of 'All AQ.mad
al-JarjawI. In 1904 a contemporary, the ardent patriot Mu�tafa Kfunil, had
6 On occasion Al-Jarjawl related information
already devoted a panegyric to the people "most outstanding-in relation to
identical to that reported by Kfunil. Such
included the Tsar's promise to destroyJapan
"a hundred times" (Ri!?la, p.204).
the nations of the East-for profitable study.,,4 However, by the time al­
7 Barbara Andaya " From Rum to Tokyo: the
search for anticolonial allies by the rulers of
Riau, 1899- 1 914," Indonesia 24 (1 977): 139.
JarjawI's book came out, events in the vicinity of Cairo had overtaken the
mania for news of the people that had managed to send the Russian fleet to
the bottom of the Straits of Tsushima. Egyptians were instead obsessed with
the over-zealous punishment of a number of peasants from the village of
8 On the Aceh conflict and attempts by the
Dinshaway, who had taken justice into their own hands when a party of
Acehnese to gain support from Istanbul and
Tokyo, see Anthony Reid, The contest Jor
British officers chose to shoot their pigeons. By a coincidence of fate, the first
North Sumatra; Atjeh, the Netherlands and
Britain 1858--1898 (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford
University Press, 1969). After being feted as
celebrities in Tokyo, the crew of the Ertrogrill
were forced into quarantine on the Miura
Peninsula after one of their members
contracted cholera on shore. Most of the
survivors of the ensuing epidemic were
drowned when a typhoon sank the vessel
on 16 September 1890. For an account of the
Ertrogrill and its tragic end, see Michael
Penn, "The last months of the Ertrogrul:
Yokohama, Tokyo, and the Miura Peninsula,"
Bulletin: Showa Pharmaceutical University
34 (2000): 1-12.
sitting of the court that would sentence the men of Dinshaway to the scaffold
for the murder of a British officer convened as al-JarjawI was taking the first
steps of his journey, travelling from Cairo to Alexandria on 30 June 1906.
Much of the subsequent agitation in the Egyptan press against the harsh
sentences, and indeed the British occupation, would be led by Kfunil and his
Patriotic Party (al-I;Iizb al-WatanI ) 5 But if al-JarjawI shared with Kfunil an
interest in Meiji Japan, the religious reformists with whom he was aligned
scorned Kfunil and his followers. And while there are some hints in the RilJla
that al-JarjawI was familiar with aI-Shams al-mushriqa, such a link is never
explicitly made, nor is Kfunil mentioned6 Finally, whereas Kfunil had been
eager to announce that Japan's material elevation rested on its exemplary
patriotism (wataniyya), urging Egyptians to imbibe love for the homeland,
al-JarjawI had taken it upon himself to use the example of Japan to advance
the cause of Islamic propagation.
Al-JarjawI was not articulating a new idea. There had already been
widespread speculation about the potential for a Japanese Muslim Empire
acting in concert with the Sublime Porte in Istanbul. In the 1890s, letters
seeking aid against the Dutch had already been sent to the Japanese Emperor
by a number of Southeast Asian rulers.7 The most celebrated of these attempts
was that made by the rulers of Aceh, still fighting for independence, who had
tried to dispatch a letter on the ill-fated Ottoman warship, the Ertrogrul,
which passed through Singapore on the way to Yokohama in 1890.8 In 1906,
the editors of a reformist journal in Singapore Cal-Imam) devoted an article
in their inaugural issue to the potential for a Muslim Japan. Having mastered
Western technology, it was argued, Japan should now convert to one of the
four revealed religions (Magiism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) in order
to enter "the modern world." This choice should be governed by whether the
existing exponents of that faith would accept them as leaders and true allies
and, more specifically, as equals of England. Only Muslims, it was argued,
would accept the Japanese on such a basis. Thus, given the enormous
potential for pan-Eastern fellowship, the Japanese should embrace Islam and
MAKING MEIJ! MUSLIMS
147
join their brothers in China, Siam, the Malay Peninsula and the Netherlands
See ai-Imam, vaLl no.1, 26July 1 906, and
the subsequent report, probably written at
the Netherlands consulate in Singapore,
"Japan and Islam: Eastern's wish for militant
over-lord," ARA (General State Archive),
The Hague, Series A. 1 90, box 4 5 1 : 59.
Indies. Moreover, the editors claimed, "it would not surprise the reader . .. if
we say that a Muslim Japan would become the leader of all the people East
of the entrance to the Red Sea." This proposal was drily described by one
colonial observer as "sheer bombastic nonsense."
It is almost impossible to conceive of a people in the forefront of civilization
like the Japanese adopting a religion so hopelessly out of touch with the
modern world as that amalgam of Judaism and Chr istianity which Mohamed
planted in the mind of the seventh-century Arab . . . . The outcome of the
Russo-Japanese War has certainly been a check to the eastern progress of
Russia; but it may result equally, though the fact is not yet patent, as a check
to European aggression in other parts of Asia. 9
Regardless of the practicality of such calls, with the announcement in the
press in 1906 that the Japanese would host the second World Congress of
Religions the following year, al-Jarjawl resolved to travel there to witness the
proceedings. And if he could not preach Islam on that occasion-as delegates
were selected by invitation only from the various states representing their
faiths-al-Jarjawl set out to have a personal impact on the Mikado's subjects.
Al-Jarjawl advertised in his own paper, al-Irshad (Guidance), that he
planned to make this journey and invited any interested Muslims to join
him-but with the proviso that they should be entirely self-funded. Al­
JarjawI's appeal gained him two fellow travellers, and dictated the circuitous
route of his travels. The first was, according to al-Jarjawl, an important
Tunisian who wished to remain anonymous. The second was the distinguished
Egyptian religious scholar and incumbent prayer-leader (imam) of the Great
Mosque of Calcutta, Shaykh AJ:!mad MOsa (b.1863). This party of three would
later be joined in Hong Kong by a Chinese Muslim, Sayyid Sulayman, and
thereafter in Japan by a Russian, J:Iajji Mukhli� MaJ:!mOd, as well as an Indian
preacher, Sayyid J:Iusayn 'Abd al-Mun'im. Whilst all six men are deserving of
attention, al-Jarjawl only supplies a biography for his principal travelling
partner, AJ:!mad MOsa. lO The Tunisian is barely mentioned, while Sayyid
Sulayman and Mukhli� MaJ:!mOd seem to have been used mainly as guides
in China and Japan. Moreover, I have had difficulty locating any biographical
information on the author himself, and the image of the protagonist that
emerges from the RilJla is entirely that of his own making. He stands as a
modern man of wealth and learning, committed to the elevation of Egyptians,
the preservation of the Ottoman state, and the spread of Islam-not 'Islam'
as represented by Muslim societies of his day, but the religion revealed through
MuJ:!ammad and the youthful venture of Islamic conquest and empire.) 1
As mentioned above, the route taken by al-Jarjawl over some eight months
was a circuitous one. Yet the very course of his travels underpins the narrative
that he developed as he sought to link the peoples of North Africa with those
of East Asia. After due reflection on the state of his nation, and indeed on the
once Muslim Mediterranean, al-Jarjawl boarded an Italian steamer and headed
10 AJ:!mad bin MDsa bin Mu�\afa bin Isma'jJ
was born in the district of Manufiyya and
attended the University of al-Azhar from
1 878. He travelled in Upper Egypt in 1887
and took on the role of Qa<;!i Qudge) of
Qena and maintained connections with
fellow Azharites in the district. He then used
these networks to move on, serving with the
Egyptian army as a prayer-leader (imam),
before departing from the Sudan for the
Hijaz in 1890. [n Medina he studied for six
months under the SDfi activist MuJ:!ammad
'Ali al-SanDsi, before travelling in India,
China and the Netherlands Indies. Finally,
after studying Hanafi jurisprudence in China,
he moved to Calcutta in 1 900, becoming
imam of the Great Mosque the following
year.
11 In many respects al-Jarjawi conforms to
the self-image of the Muslim reformer as
discussed most recently by Skovgaard­
Petersen. See Jacob Skovgaard-Petersen,
"Portrait of the intellectual as a young man:
Rashid Rida's Muhawarat al-muslih wa-al­
muqallid ( 1 906)," Islam and Christian­
Muslim Relations 12 (2001): 93-104. (There
are indeed interesting comparisons that could
be made between the discourse of 'youth' in
many 'modernist' movements, such as those
of Egypt [the Manar group]; the Ottoman
Empire [the Young Turks]; Southeast Asia's
reformists [the Kaum Mudal; and that of
Meiji Japan.)
148
MICHAEL F. LAFFAN
12 See H. A. R. Gibb, ed., The travels ofIhn
northwest for Sicily, stopping in the towns of Messina, Naples and Palermo, and
Battuta AD ]32�1354: translated with
revisions and notes from the Arabic text
edited by C. Defremery and B. R. Sanguinetti,
Hakluyt Series 2, vols.ll0 and 118
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1958 and 1962)
13 See Dale F. Eickelman andJames Piscatori,
eds, Muslim travellers: pilgrimage, migration
and the religious imagination (Berkeley,
Calif.: University of California Press, 1990).
then occupied Tunis. This was probably done to rendezvous with his
anonymous companion and to indulge his curiosity. After this very long
digression (of over 66 pages in a book of 240 pages), the journey is resumed
as they pass through Suez and aftewards a series of ports, including Aden,
Bombay, Colombo, Singapore, Hong Kong and, at last, Yokohama. The return
leg included Calcutta, where Ai).mad Musa rejoined his congregation, and the
book concludes with an address to al-JarjawI's audience, most notably scholars
of religion ('ulama) and men of letters (udaba).
I should pause here to note the literary tradition within which al-JarjawI
placed his narrative, for it is one that lies at the confluence of the interests
of the 'ulama' and the udaba'. The purpose of the travelogue (rilJla), is to
apprise the reader of the wonders beyond his or her shores. Often the rilJla
is a tale culminating with the experience of the I:Iajj, when Muslims from all
parts of the world assemble together at Mecca to perform the most arduous
rites of their faith.
Having reached this spiritual apogee, the account
continues with a description of the way home, perhaps by an alternate route.
Yet the I:Iajj itself can be subsumed in other accounts of travel, such as the
famolls rilJla of Ibn Banuta, whose wanderings pre-dated and far exceeded
those of Marco POlO.12 Others might even compose a rilJla without the I:Iajj
or a visit to the Arabian peninsula. Yet the spiritual journey often remained
a part of the physical journey as the traveller calls in at great centres of Islamic
learning, or at the tombs of mystical saints.13
Furthermore, by 1900, Egyptians were familiar with a new style of
descriptive writing generated by the many students sent to France to further
Figure 1
Cairo-­
general view
from the citadel
MAKING MEIJI MUSLIMS
149
their education. Contributors to this literature included Rifa'a Raft' al-TahrawI
14 Indeed, Sawaie argues that al-Tah1awl's
language, as developed in works like Takhli�
al-ibrlz, shaped the very development of
(1801-73), with his account of Paris, Takhl'i:j al-ihrzz ita talkhz:j Barfs (Sifting
for Pure Gold, or Paris in Detail), and 'Ali Mubarak Pasha (1823- 93), whose
fictional 'Alam al-dzn (The World of Religion) included conversations
between savants of the East and the West. 14 Again the Muslim set forth to
explore his faith, but in some cases he or she travelled beyond the protection
of the Islamic world and into one that seemed diametrically opposed to it.
There remained the impulse to come to grips with one's faith. But coupled
with this, in the increasingly colonized Muslim world, there was the need to
critically compare one's home to the outside world-both colonized and
free-and perhaps, thereby, to draw some lessons for the future. Certainly
modern literary Arabic. See Muhanunad
Sawaie, "Rifa'a Rafi' al-Tahtawi and his
contibution to the lexical development of
modern literary Arabic , " International
Journal oj Middle East Studies 32.3 (2000):
395-410 On the Takhlf.) al-ibrTz (Cairo,
1834), see Hourani, Arabic thought, pp.70l. On 'All Mubarak's 'Alam ai-DIn [The
world of religion], see Skovgaanl-Petersen,
"Portrait," p . 99 .
al-Jarjawl wanted to impress upon his Egyptian readers the exemplarary
aspects of Japanese society in exchange for claiming this Eastern people for
a united Islamic future.
Home, Religion, Reform
Home, for al-JarjawI, was Egypt, with its glorious past being unearthed by
Western archaeologists and contrasted with the supposed decadence of
contemporary 'Oriental' culture. There, under the British occupation begun
in 1882, al-JarjawI and his fellow newspaper editors vied for the attention of
an avid reading public absorbed by their own history and politics. Cairo
seemed both strikingly modern and traditional, with its new Westernized
quarters slowly absorbing the medieval city. Many young Cairenes crowded
Figure 2
The Qasr ai-Nil
Bridge, Cairo,
c.1900
150
MICHAEL F. LAFFAN
15 See Tomothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt.
into both the new government schools, modelled on French lines, and the
(New York, etc.: Cambridge University Press,
1988). For a less theoretical and more lively
description of the Francophile modernis­
ations imposed on Egypt in the nineteenth
century, see Trevor Mostyn, Egypt's belle
epoque: Cairo ] 86�1952 (London and New
York: Quartet Books, 1989).
16 See A. Eccel, Islam and social change: al­
Azhar in conflict and acco mmodation
(Berlin: Schwarz, 1984).
traditional kuttab (elementary schools) where students learned to recite the
Qur'an.15 Despite enormous government investments, these latter schools
vastly outnumbered the former. Access to the foreign-language instruction of
a government school was thus very much the preserve of the elite sons of an
emerging middle class. And as a result of such schooling, some Egyptian
Muslims, such as Mu��afa Kamil, did gravitate to a Western mode of thinking
as regards state-sponsored nationalism and constitutional government.
Yet, as far as religion was concerned, the educational divide was not
overwhelmingly one of modernist secularists and traditional scripturalists.
Egyptians differed instead on how Islam was to be interpreted and applied
to their own circum-stances. Students of Western methodology and science
seldom revoked their loyalty to the primacy of Islam
Figure 3
Courtyard oJthe university-mosque oJal-Azhar, c.1910
and the supremacy of the Ottoman Sultan. Some still
looked to the authority of the mosque-university of al­
Azhar. 16 Then there were other Egyptians who, dissatis­
fied with the 'ulamii' of al-Azhar and ever conscious
of the rivalry of Western and Muslim civilizations,
sought an accommodation between them, agreeing
on the core principle that civilization depended on
religion correctly understood. This line was pioneered
by Mul)ammad 'Abduh (1849-1905) and then his
devotee RashId Ri<;la 0865-1936). Both men classified
the Islam embodied by the 'ulamii' as stultified by
ages of superstitions and non-Islamic accretions.
Through modern techniques of education they sought
to infuse Muslims with a desire for scientific
achievement and a rational inquiry into the foundations
of their faith. Once they gained this 'true' and modern
understanding of Islam, Muslims could compete on
the world stage as independent agents.
Given that al-Jarjawl was aligned with this reformist
movement, he remained constantly' mindful of
comparisons between the religiosity of the Egyptians
and their co-believers. The clearest manifestation of
this was often to be seen in their religious schools on
which he often commented. However, there is irony in
the fact that al-JarjawI's first point of educational
comparison in the Riqla was not Muslim. When sight­
seeing in the Sicilian town of Naples he met a local
teacher of Arabic, at whose college Al-Jarjawl found a
mixture of French and Italian students industriously
engaged in studies of Arabic and Islam. He was further
amazed by their proficiency in formal Arabic:
MAKING MEIJI MUSLIMS
151
Let the Egyptian Arab look upon the great care and attention devoted to the
17 Rii?la, p.25.
1 8 Rii?la, pp.34 ff. This was not to say that he
study of Arabic and the Holy Qur'an by a people who are neither Arabs nor
members of the true faith of Islam. Then let him compare this care,
intelligently and dispassionately, with how he has learned our own language
and further let him take that [care] as an example.!7
By way of further comparison, al-JarjawI was depressed by the state of
Tunis's famous Zaytuna Mosque, once considered second only to al-Azhar.
There he noted the relative lack of students, and worse still, the absence of
any instruction in science or medicine, once the very strength of Islamic
institutions during their medieval heyday. IS
He would go on to make similar educational comparisons throughout his
journey: whether looking from the deck at the impoverished populations of
the Indo-Iranian coast, "where there was nothing resembling an educational
institution other than the sort of Qur'an school of rural Egypt . . . where [the
peoplellived in the utmost ignorance, were illiterate and ruled only by their
,,
desires and passions 19; in Colombo, where local Muslims needed to
compete with the velY active Christian schools2o; or in Singapore, where the
ways of the local Muslims seemed "alien" to the Malays:
maintaining the manners of faith, but only in matters of worship. In other
respects there was nothing to distinguish them from other peoples. They
have no aim nor motivation impelling them to adopt the means of obtaining
[their arisall.21
The only bright light on the Muslim horizon, in al-Jarjawl's estimation, was
that of Aligarh College in India; however, he knew only of its fame and did
not make adetour to visit it. 22 Beyond the borders of the Muslim world, Japan
had outstripped them all. I shall describe al-JarjawI's reaction to Meiji
education further below.
Lost Independence, Colonialism, and the Caliphate
The relationship between colonialism and the contemporary state of the
Muslim world absorbs al-JarjawI throughout his RilJla. It was a relationship
that pained him all the more as he was obsessed with the historical supremacy
of Islam on the world stage. He introduced this narrative of lost empire when
standing on the corniche at Alexandria:
If only the Straits of Gibralter, the Suez Canal and the Bosphorous had
remained in the hands of the Caliph, then today our [Ottoman] state would
control the Mediterranean without contest or interference from any other
state! . .. . So it was that I contemplated the shores of the Mediterranean, my
mind roaming from coast to coast of the Muslim lands, sometimes thinking
of their present, and at other times of their pages in history ... . Let the wise
man reflect on these kingdoms. Islam would realise its power were they to
considered Tunis bereft of educational
opportunity. The newly-established Khal­
duniyya school, under the direction of the
French-educated Mul)ammad al-BashIr �afr
(b.l863)-whom al-JarjawI described both
as the heir to Aristotle and a Tunisian
Mul)ammad 'Abduh-appeared to offer
some hope (see Rii?la, pp.45 , 73-4).
19 Rii?la,
p.90.
20 Rii?la, p . 92ff.
21 Rii?la, p.95.
22
Rii?la, p.2 18.
152
23 Ri�/a, pp. 1 8-21.
24 Ri�la, pp.49-59.
25 See Ri�/a, pp.63 and 84.
26 Ri�/a, p.8 1 .
27 Ri�/a, pp.81-84.
2 8 These two dynasties claimed the hege­
mony of much of the Muslim World until the
Mongol destruction of West Asia in the
thirteenth century.
29 Ri�/a, p.62ff.
30 Ri�la, p.20.
MICHAEL F. LAFFAN
unite completely and effectively in the elevation of the people, man for man,
with the [Ottoman] Caliphate in union with the kingdoms of the Maghreb and
the other Muslim domains. Indeed . . . there is a need for Islam to return to
the age of its youth, its glory and might, filling the heart of every Musl im [with
pride]23
Al-JarjawI's view of an Islam weakened with age would be reinforced at
the French protectorate of Tunis. But his long initial detour in North Africa
served most effectively in the RilJla to highlight the differences between the
Muslim lands and Japan without needing to bemoan the situation in his
homeland. In Tunis, al-JarjawI dwelt on the oppression of the French,
exposing their allegedly benign intentions24
Al-JarjawI was furthermore disturbed that Europeans could see the
Muslims of the world as their fanatical enemies. This, al-JarjawI claimed, was
fictitious, and he pointed out that if all Muslims were truly united by hatred,
then they would rise up as one-"from the Black Sea to China"-and overturn
the colonial powers.25 Al-JarjawI, rather, hoped to explain Islam as unity of
a different sort, being the faith "of human nature, justice, civilization and
,,
freedom. 26 Of these it was civilization that was paramount.
AI-JarjawI advanced his argument in his account of a conversation
(perhaps real) with a French passenger on the steamer between Tunis and
Suez27 According to al-JarjawI, this certain Mr Pernot was attracted to him
and his Tunisian companion as "Muslims of learning" who could explain
why the state of Muslims at the time was so divergent from its ascendant
past. This gave al-JarjawI the opportunity to outline his argument: true
Islam, if practised properly, is the religion of civilization. This was shown
in the glorious achievements of the Umayyad and 'Abbasid caliphates.28 Yet
Islam had been weakened from within by wrongdoers and sinful rulers,
whose edicts were validated by corrupt 'ulama), and the West had taken
control of the East. Even Islamic law itself was subject to a Western code
in Egypt. Egyptians only took from the West what threatened their faith,
whereas the West had learned true civilization Cmadaniyya) from Islam.
Was it not ironic that Westeners regarded Muslims as fanatics? Had not the
Crusades been the greatest display of Western fanaticism against Islam' Still,
if Muslims were once again to live their faith, then they could return to their
past greatness.
As can be seen, al-JarjawI was eager to defend his faith, and to do what
he could to reverse the myth of a universal Muslim hatred of Christians. But
while Muslims were cast by al-JarjawI as unable to act in concert, he still
championed the notion that the Muslim world was united in its affection for
the Ottoman Sultan. In Tunis, we are told how the dedication to the Caliph
was absent from the official Friday prayers, but that it was recited by every
Muslim in prayer privately29
However, by comparison with his earlier eulogising of the historical
caliphate of unity,30 there is a hollowness in the affection for Sultan
Abdulhamid II (r. 1876-1909), which al-JarjawI declared to be "something
153
MAKING MEIJI MUSLIMS
natural implanted in the heart of the Muslim by his religion."31 He had no
illusions about the shrinking Ottoman Empire being able to exercise a direct
31 Rif;la, p.92.
32 Rif;la, pp.95ff.
interest in the extraterritorial affairs of Muslims. This was implicit in his long
exposition on the prominent place held by the Muslims in China, who,
despite instances of harassment from their Han neighbours and organized
imperial oppression, fully embraced their compatriots in all matters of
national importanceY I shall later show how, in Japan, al-JarjawI would try
to turn to his advantage what he saw as the potential for a coexistent spiritual
universalism and political neutrality. There, he believed, the greatest single
obstacle to the conversion of the Japanese was their group loyalty and
patriotism. Yet this obstacle was not one he wished to demolish by any
means, as it was the essential quality which al-JarjawI, like Mu��afa Kamil,
believed had allowed them to remain independent.
Japan at Last ...
Having finally left Tunis and its sufferings behind, and after the long
voyage with its many ports of call, al-JarjawI arrived in Yokohama. As usual,
he commenced his account with a potted history of the port, drawn from
Figure 4
Yokohama wharf
(from the album of
Ogawa Kazuma)
154
MICHAEL F. LAFFAN
Figure 5
Yokohama Post
Office (photograph
by A. Forsari)
33 RilJla, pp.l04-5.
Western sources, as was indicated by his shift from the Islamic to the
34 RilJla, p. 105.
Gregorian calendars. Perhaps with quick glances at a Western encyclopedia
35 RilJla, p.l06.
from the saloon of his vessel, al-Jarjawl had jotted down how the former
fishing village had become a city, with its quarters for Chinese and Europeans
and its modern facilities, which included churches and hospitals. Al-Jarjawl
did not neglect to mention its telegraph line, established in December 1869,
and the slightly more recent trainline that would soon take him to the
capitaI.33
At the port al-Jarjawl was met by f:l.ajjl Mukhli� MaQ.mud, a Tartar who had
been sent by his companion Sulayman al-�lnl to prepare the way for them.
With due thanks to God for his safe arrival, al-Jarjawl settled down in the
bitterly cold town with its "paved streets" and where "the proof of its
advanced civilization was especially to be seen in the electric lights which
shone when the sun set behind the clouds. "34 The already impressed al­
Jarjawl was even more affected by the Sight of modern Tokyo (see below),
and delighted in mentioning that-like Egypt-Japan was a land blessed with
the proof of ancient civilization in its stelae and statues. 35
Such observations of both the modern and traditional aspects of Japan
were also a feature of Kfunil's history of Japan, aI-Shams al-mushriqa. But
155
MAKING ME!]I MUSLIMS
Figure 6
Club Hotel, Yokohama
(from the album of
Ogawa Kazuma)
while Kfunil had enumerated the kilometres of track or cable which had been
36 Rif;/a, p.l07. Clearly al-Jarjawl only
laid, and what the key events were in its history as a civilization, the eye­
deemed holdings of European texts as
'libraries'. He is unlikely to have visited any
temple collections, or to have regarded
exisiting collections ofJapanese manuscripts
(which he could not read) as constituting
modern bibliographic knowledge. By
comparison the Khedives of Egypt had been
investing for some time in the production of
European text books, although the govern­
ment warehouses at Bulaq were full of texts
on gunnelY that no-one wanted to read.
witness al-JarjawI could describe with greater authority the actual country, its
people and religions. It was thus somewhat of a surprise to him to note that,
"if we look at the advancement appropriate to a nation such as this, we would
[expect to seel that it had a major library [kutubkbanal stacked with the books
of every civilized country and developed nation. Yet there was no such thing,
other than one branch library [maktabal of a mere 200 thousand volumes."36
Nevertheless, Tokyo overwhelmed and impressed him when, after three
days recuperation, he and his companions emerged from their hotel:
How can I possibly talk about or explain what 1 saw in the capital of the land
of the rising sun beyond what [I have already written] before? Moreover, how
can I describe the civilization, the busy trade, the amount of merchandise and
the ordered streets? The most remarkable thing on which one describing this
capital [should comment] is its civilization in the flower of its youth. And if
not that, then, save for the bitter cold, it could be counted the garden of the
East in aspect and splendour.37
Japan in March would have been cold indeed for an Egyptian. But the
reader was made to wait for further sights of Japan, as al-JarjawI set out a brief
history of the nation and the incumbent Emperor before moving on to explain
his strategy for converting the Japanese to Islam.
37 Ibid.
156
MICHAEL F. LAFFAN
Figure 7
Ginza c. 1910
(photographer
unknown)
Figure 8
Snow scene of Sanyabori
Canal, Tokyo
(photographer unknown)
MAKING MEIJI MUSLIMS
A
157
Unique People with a Unique Emperor
Figure 9
Like most observers of the day, al-Jarjawl regarded
the Japanese as a people deserving of excellence.
The resplendent Emperor Mutsuhito as he appeared
in the Netherlands Indies magazine Bintang Hindia in 1904
And like Kiimil before him, al-Jarjawl accepted the
argument that their Mongoloid appearance belied
their true racial status. As he wrote:
MUTSUHITO. KEIZER YAN JAPAN,
werd geborcn in 1852, besteeg den troon in 1867 en heert sedert getoond cen praclisch
vorst le zijn, Hij toch is bet voornamelijk gcweest die, i n minder dan 40 jnar, Japan
v�u een half-barbr4'lrsch land gemaakt heeft lot cell mogendhcid van den eersten mng.
Some [historians] say that they are of Chinese
origin, as is evidenced by the similarity in
appearance of Chinese and Japanese in colour and
complexion. Yet the truth is very different to that.
They are actually of a stock entirely self-constituted,
and one of the distinct forms of mankind.38
They had further wedded their uniqueness as a
race to the structures of a modern state by adopting
aspects of Western civilization on their own terms,
with a modern constitution, free press, modern
military and independent judiciary. All such
observations seem to have been drawn from Western
publications, or perhaps from Kiimil's book. And,
like Kiimil before him, al-JarjawI devoted significant
space to the embodiment of Japan's success-its
Emperor Meiji:
The first thing to be said of him and his excellent
manners is that he has the most apparent and
abundant solicitude for his subjects and has
emplanted within them his love. Hence both great
and small have begun to adore him with a love
unheard of . . . . In truth, the first reign in which
Japan has advanced on the path of advancement
and civilization [madaniyya] is that of today when
this emperor sits upon the throne. This is because
he looks to the civilization of Europe with wisdom
and prudence. He observes the policies of the
Western states towards their subjects and has
embarked upon [a plan] granting his nation a
constitution and representative assembly. At the
Keizer Mntsuhito,
Radja djepangj dilahirkan' dalam tahoen 1852, naik-nobat dalam t. 1867. Radja lni
menjatakao selama In mendjadi radja, hahwa Baginda orang, jang mengetahoei, betapa
wadjibnja socpaja ra'iat- rlan tanahnja madjoe. Dulam 40 tahoen sadja ballgsa
djepang hoe telah sama tinggi kedoedoekannja dimcdan kehormatan dengan bangsa cropa,
same time he has turned to spread the sciences in
his lands and is urging the nation to found scholarly institutions . . . . In sum
he is Chosroes in his justice, 'Umar bin al-Khanab in his eloqence and self­
denial, and 'Umar bin 'Abd al-'Azlz in his righteousness.39
What more, indeed, could be said of the great Meiji Tenn6? Apart from
his own Sultan, the Emperor seemed to al-JarjawI to be the embodiment of
all virtue and modernity. But it must be said that the Emperor lacked one thing
as much as his subjects did: true guidance in religion.
38 Riqla, p.l0S.
39 Riqla, p . 1 10 ff.
1 58
40 Rii}la, p.1 l3.
41 Rii}la, p. 1 l4.
MICHAEL F. LAFFAN
Establishing a Muslim Presence in the Japanese Islands:
Islam and Civilization
I have already described the traditional purpose of the rilJla above. And
so it was that the RilJla al-Yabaniyya was as much a device for al-Jarjawl to
demonstrate his integrity as a believer as to describe the Far East to his own
compatriots. Not only did he locate himself and his faith in relation to the
wider world, colonized and free, he acted out his belief through its
propagation (da 'wa), and thereby sought to claim Japan for Islam.
In Tokyo, al-Jarjawl and his three companions joined an Indian missionary,
5ayyid 'Abd al-Mun'im, who had been unable to gain any converts acting
alone. Hence the five ambassadors of Islam resolved to act "as one hand" and
to form an association (jam 'iyya) 40 This was secured by the rental of a house
from a prominent "Japanese" trader. The latter, a certain "Mr JaznIf," does not
sound particularly Japanese, at least as far as his patronymic goes. Indeed the
ambiguity of the Arabic script here allows for a somewhat Russian-sounding
name. In any case, al-Jarjawl is insistent that he was a particularly honourable
and bright Japanese trader, whose backing for their cause led to an even
more active role in their endeavours. For upon being introduced to the party,
and thereafter having had the doctrines of Islam explained to him (in English)
by 5ayyid I;Iusayn, Mr JaznIf embraced Islam:
And when this Japanese stood before the truth of the Islamic religion and
tasted its sweetness in his heart, he did not waste a moment before saying,
"From this moment, you are to consider me a Muslim. " 50 we witnessed the
Declaration of Faith [shahadal , and congratulated him upon his coming out
from the shades into the light of faith. And thereby all of us attained complete
joy and celebrated the realisation of our hopes. After he converted, he said
to us, "I am completely prepared to undertake all my responsibilities in
regard to the interests [of Islam]. Henceforth I grant to you, and to your
association, a residence of my own, for which I do not seek rent so long as
you are here. I do this in honour of this faith to which I have pledged myself
and through which I have become the happiest of men. ,,4 1
The conversion of this "Japanese" is the key to the reputed success of al­
Jarjawl's mission. The regular meetings of the association they formed were
held in the parlour of JaznIf's home-or rather his well-appointed floor of a
private house. For the sessions, the 'ulama' composed brief tracts to be
translated by 'Abd al-Mun'im into English and then distributed by JaznIf, who
would also expound their contents verbally to the meetings.
50 it was that al-JarjawI detailed in his account exactly how they
introduced the Japanese to the Qur'an, its revelation and inimitabilty; the
mission of the Prophet; and the pillars of faith, including ritual prayers (�alat),
alms (zakat), fasting (�wm) and the I;Iajj. In all the pamphlets, and at the
meetings where they were distributed, a strong emphasis was placed on the
direct aspects of belief, and on the equality of believers before God and with
1 59
MAKING MEIJI MUSLIMS
each other. 42 The Muslims affirmed the imperative to act as one, and to form
a community of belief that could live beside other communities in the
world 43 Such concerns were by no means novel in the language of Muslim
proselytisation, but it is interesting to observe the mixed language of
propagation and, further, the sources of credibility. Not only did the group's
calls to Islam move from the Arabic originals to simple and, in this case, direct
Western-language tracts; their very substance demonstrated the reformist
transition in argumentation and propagation. AI-JarjawI and Musa may have
recited the classical dogmas of Islam, reflecting upon its superiority as the last
of the revealed faiths, but they also cited the arguments of European
orientalism, including selected Islamophile French scholarship , to affirm that
excellence. 44 Thereby they elevated Islam as a religion not only of "intellect"
( 'aql), but as the one most closely conforming to the modern virtues of
"civilization, justice and equality" (d'in al-madaniyya wa al- 'adl wa al­
musawa).45
Of this triumverate of virtues, the word "civilization" is repeated again and
again in the RilJla. Whereas the authoritative Wehr-Cowan dictionary gives
this as the only gloss for madaniyya,46 for al-JarjawI, madaniyya often
described something more than an advanced state of social organization.
Certainly he wrote of madaniyyas past and present, but his usage for the
latter evoked an additional sense of motion on the path to national
advancement. When al-JarjawI wrote of madaniyya he visualized factories,
urban centres and modern education. Madaniyya was the embodiment of
progress, to be striven for and contrasted. Hence, in his description of the
Meccan pilgrimage (I;Iajj), which attracted the most interest among the
Japanese, al-JarjawI dwelt not only on its symbolic affirmation of Muslim
unity, but claimed that it represented the great forum for believers to compare
their respective levels of madaniyya.
The Muslims o f every race come together i n one place s o that the Turk comes
to know the Chinese, the Indian the Rumelian, the Arab the European, the
Egyptian the Syrian, the Moroccan the Yemeni, etc. And they exchange with
each other mutual understanding and affection. Everyone asks the other
about the state of affairs in his country , and what they have of culture
(I,Ja(iaral , civilization [madaniyyal, trade, agriculture and the like. In this way
every Muslim in this place is a representative of his community and his
country 47
AI-JarjawI's impulse to highlight rationality, civilization and modernity
came forward again in relation to the Congress of Religions (see below). Yet
it was well and truly present in his description of the mass conversions over
which he claimed to have presided in Japan. According to al-JarjawI, in
commencing his account of their preaching of Islam in Tokyo, the Japanese
public demanded arguments that were above all else logical. In this respect
al-JarjawI likened his Japanese audience to the Pious Forebears of Islam,
whom he asserted only accepted Islam in the first place because it was the
42 See Rii}/a, pp.120-40.
43 Riqla, pp.114-39.
44
Al-Jarjawj refers to the work of a French
scholar whose name I do not recognize.
Nevertheless this fits the general form of
citation among Egyptian literati exposed to
Orientalist discourse. One favourite was
Gustave Le Bon (1841 - 1931), who argued
that Islam had civilized Europe.
45 Riqla, pp.1 16-17.
46 Hans Wehr, A dictionary of modern
written Arabic, ed. J. Milton Cowan (Ithaca,
NY: Spoken Language Services, 1 976), p.899.
47 Riqla,
pp. 1 39ff. The new idea that the
f:lajj was more than the spiritual gathering of
all Muslims and thus embodied the ideal
assembly point for Mulims to compare their
respective states in relation to Western
colonialism had been recently advanced by
al-Kawakibj (c.1849-1902) in his Umm al­
qura [The mother of towns! (1899), This
work was serialized by Rashjd Ridii in al­
Manar between April 1902 and February
1 903. On the concept of the Muslim congress
and its development see Martin Kramer,
Islam assembled: the advent of the Muslim
congresses (New York: Columbia University
Press, 1986).
160
MICHAEL F. LAFFAN
48 Rii?la, p.l18.
faith of rationality. 48 But the demand for a religion that conformed to logic
49 Rii?la, pp.l18-19.
also intersected with another modern devotion:
50 Rii?la, p.l19.
What simplified the direction of the Uapanesel people to our straight religion
was the natural state of the Japanese . . . who , as a people, have an innate
capacity to accept all that conforms to intellect and to reject all that conflicts
with it-even when presented with all forms of sophistry and equivocation.
The first proof of their complete readiness to accept The Most Defined Truth
[Islaml was their love for their homeland , that rare love. Indeed, he who is
possessed of this love naturally is closer to being directed away from
darkness and guided from error. If only the Muslims had sent missions to
Japan before now, and if only they had used our method [of propagation],
then the Muslims among the Japanese would number in the millions and not
the thousands! 4 9
It seems hard to believe that the eighteen assemblies convened in the
month of al-JarjawI's visit, even if they crowded Mr JaznIf's salon , produced
hundreds (let alone thousands) of converts. To be precise, al-JarjawI claimed
that, prior to leaving the enterprise in the hands of Sulayman al-SInI and
Mukhli� Mahmud, their association had fostered the conversion of 1 200
Japanese men 5 0 Yet their entry into the universal faith came without the
conventional abandoning of their indigenous names. This is somewhat
unusual. For although it is not compulsory, in their rite of passage Muslim
converts commonly adopt the Arabic names of the Pious Forebears, or of their
clients, allies and aides during the early years of Islam. Nonetheless, the fact
that al-JarjawI's converts did not do so reinforces the strong claims regarding
Japanese patriotism which he extolled. He felt it only natural that they would
prefer to keep the names that expressed their national identity.
The Congress ofReligions and the Conversion of the Emperor
5 1 Apparently in error, the text gives the
After the long delay in Tunis, the significant space devoted to the state of
commencement date as 1 March 1 906;
however 1907 would appear more likely, as
al-Jarjawl claims to have set out on his eight­
month journey on 30 June 1906, and arrived
in Japan in winter. I am also less sure that
this congress was the second ever, but it was
certainly an imitation of the Chicago event
of 1893
Islam in China, and his detailing of the arguments of propagation, al-JarjawI
at last turned his attention to the reason for his journey on page 140 of his
RiIJla. This was the second World Congress of Religions, convened, it would
seem, in Tokyo on 1 March 1907 5 1 Nineteen pages later he is done with the
matter, having stated here and there that he did not wish to burden the reader
with excessive description of the debates over the relative excellence of
various faiths, or with details of the annoying intransigence of the Christians
whose bickering had dominated the proceedings.
According to our guide, the Japanese had determined that while their
knowledge of modern science and the arts of warfare was certainly equal to
that of the West, their ancestral faith seemed to be inadequate, especially
given that true scientific progress rested on sound religious belief.
It was as though the Russo-Japanese war had been a mirror for the Japanese
161
MAKING MElJ! MUSLIMS
in which they saw reflected their societal identity. In it they saw glory and
pride and other such qualities which elevated men to the loftiest stations of
power and might. Yet they also saw something with which they were not
blessed, being none other than religion. They saw there that their original
beliefs, which their fathers and forefathers had followed, did not conform to
intellect. And they were scornful of the fact that despite this great pride they
were not adhering to a religion in keeping with their material and cultural
excellence.
Therefore the great men, ministers, and the learned among them met
together to discuss the adoption of a religion in accord with rationality ( 'aql )
as the official faith . . . . Baron Sutanao [BarOn Sutanii.' O-not identified], . . .
agreed with the proposal and said, "A civilized nation such as ours must have
a religion based on true foundations and principles that do not sow
misgivings in [the believers'] hearts. " . . . So Count Katsura [Taro], the former
Prime Minister [1902-13], said, "I propose that we send official letters to the
civilized countries inviting them to dispatch to us their men of religious
learning and philosophers and religious legists. When they arrive let us hold
a religious congress, with debates and discussions on philosophy and faiths
and where each group explains the rules of their religion. And when they
have directed us to the true religion, we shall adopt it and make it the official
faith. ,,52
Hence the Congress was seen by the Muslims in attendance as an
opportunity. They appeared to have little idea that it more truly embodied
an attempt by the Japanese to put their nation on show to the world, and to
emulate the first Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893. Tokyo was
to be a showcase of religious freedom and modernity, where the Japanese
stressed to their hosts that they enjoyed complete freedom of religion. And
whilst they were more than happy to listen to what the representatives of
other faiths had to offer, the rules of the Congress stipulated that "any
example brought forward" in the speeches of the delegates "must be
rational."53 The Japanese were not interested in the miraculous proofs
normally marshalled to prove the validity of any faith. Religion was thus to
be shown as being in step with the modern age. Thereupon the Ottoman
delegate stood up to say that he accepted this constraint provided that any
subsequent questions should also conform to rationality. And given this
security, so long as he agreed to stick to his own proviso, the Ottoman
delegate proceeded to read his speech in French 54
There was a degree of irony in this speech, as the delegate used the
Qur'anic metaphor of Moses' mission to Pharaoh to parallel his own address.
This was ironic because Moses had been summoned to prove his worth as
a prophet before the magicians of Egypt-all assembled by Pharoah in what
al-Jarjawl translated as a "congress" (mu 'tamar) . 55 It was further ironic that,
despite the clear proofs mustered by Moses (and perhaps the Ottoman
delegate), Pharoah chose to continue regarding himself as a god to his
people. I wonder indeed whether the Japanese in attendance would have
seen any (intended?) parallel to their own divine Emperor.
5 2 Rif;la, pp. 140-1 .
53 Rif;la,
p . 1 40.
5 4 It i s rather strange that the name o f this
delegate is not given, especially as al-Jarjawi
was an Ottomanist. It is further surprising
that he seems to have had no contact with
the Ottoman delegation. According to the
Singaporean paper ai-Imam (vol . l , no. 1 , 26
July 1906), which took its report from the
Egyptian press, the Ottoman Sultan had
selected three delegates to take part in
discussions for the future religion of Japan.
These projected inter-faith talks (the
Congress?) were to be held in Tokyo and
were expected to take two months. The
representatives selected were Al)mad Affandi
Madhad, Mui:Jammad Affandi As'ad and
Shaykh !sma'il Munastarli of Cairo's Dar al­
Funiin college. The article also refers to the
presence in Japan of an Englsh convert,
'Abd al-Ral�man Affandi, who had enjoyed
some success in Japan, and who also seems
not to have crossed his path.
55 See Qur'an 36:30-36; Rif;la, pp. 149-S0.
162
MICHAEL F. LAFFAN
56 Riqia, pp.153--4.
The Ottoman delegate then went on to argue that whilst Moses's message
57 Riqia, pp. 1 5 1-2.
58 Riqia, p . 1 54.
was appropriate for his time, and Jesus's miraculous powers as a healer had
59 Riqia, p . 1 5 5 .
60 Riqia, p . 1 57.
the final prophecy. The rest of the address was spent attacking the illogical
been appropriate for his, MuQ.ammad and the message he had brought was
aspects of Christian belief-particularly that God should have a son. 56
According to al-JarjawI, this speech had a definite impact.
As His Excellency read the speech, everyone was listening intently to what
he said. And during this time, expressions of wonder, surprise and
amazement were seen in their eyes, and all started to look at each other.
However the solemnity of the occasion made the people silent with awe. 57
The various Christian "magicians" present in Tokyo may have listened
politely, but in question time proceedings became bogged down when the
participants began to debate precisely how Moses and the Israelites had
crossed the Red Sea. Some American delegates argued that recent
archaeological finds had shown there had been a low tide at the time; hence
the miraculous crossing of the Israelites could be rationally explained. 58 I n
response the Ottoman affirmed that i t h a d been a miracle wrought b y God,
whose might should not be rationally explained away. This, according to al­
Jarjawl, won him applause from most delegates 5 9 Dogma and dissent soon
took over , and al-Jarjawl said little more of the first session, other than to
bemoan the intransigence of the Christian delegates, and to remark that they
seemed to have been unsettled by the positive reception accorded to the
Muslims. 60
At least here he could take comfort, having already boasted that "unlike
,
a Christian, a Muslim can easily and rationally explain his creed. , 6 1 It still
seems somehow strange that al-Jarjawl felt the need to explain to his Egyptian
audience the message of Islam; but perhaps this reflects the reformist
perception that Muslims themselves had a shallow understanding of their
own faith.
Al-Jarjawl accorded even less space to describing the proceedings of the
second day other than to note that the presiding chair, Count Hijikata, made
an appeal to the participants not to get distracted by particulars, for "the sole
aim [of the Congress] is to decide which faith is to be adopted as the official
,,
religion of the Japanese government. 62 This plea appears to have been
ignored, and al-Jarjawl wrote that he would not recount the details of the
debates, as they were offensive to Muslims and clear evidence of European
fanaticism towards them. With that, his account of the Congress ends,
although he notes in conclusion that Count Katsura closed proceedings with
a speech in which he stated that while the Congress had achieved some of
its aims , there was a need for further debate as the Japanese were divided.
Some preferred Islam, some Buddhism, some Confucianism:
Yet there is no fear, gentlemen, for there is complete freedom of religion in
our land. Each individual Japanese adopts the religion he chooses, without
163
MAKING MEIJI MUSLIMS
animosity or compulsion; there is no restriction if he chooses to leave one
6 1 RilJla, p . 1 2 5 .
for another 63
62 RilJla, p . 1 57.
63 Ibid.
He then thanked the participants on behalf of the Emperor (who did not
attend the fractious second session) and conveyed his greetings to the rulers
of the various states who had sent their delegates, stating that the Emperor
had heard enough for the moment and would convene a further congress if
required 64
64 Ibid.
65 RilJla, p . 1 59.
66 RilJla, p . 1 96.
Despite the absence of the Emperor on the second day, al-JarjawaI
believed that the Muslims had made a genuine impression on him. He even
devoted a section to explaining why the latter had not undergone conversion.
The 'Mikado', he claimed, whilst extremely impressed by Islam, was above
all else a pragmatist and one who ruled by popular consensus. He was
presumably worried that his conversion to Islam would not be accepted by
his subjects, for whilst he could give out any edict, his rule was based on
popular affection and not fear. AI-JarjawI felt, therefore, that the way to
convert the Japanese emperor was by making Islam the predominant faith
among his subjects. For whilst the Christians had been in Japan for so long
and had reaped so few converts, he had already netted 1 200 in a mere thirty
days, and by extrapolation it would not be long before Japan was significantly
Muslim. He therefore felt bold enough to predict that, "the Islamic faith will
be the official Japanese religion of the future. ,, 65 Nevertheless, he betrays a
hint of his frustration at the Congress when later remarking how strange it
was that the event was not reported widely in the Japanese newspapers. 66
First Schools, then Gun-Boats
As can be seen, al-JarjawI placed great hope in the conversion of the
67 RilJla, pp.1 43ff.
Japanese to Islam as the religion best suited to accommodate modernity,
68 RilJla, p . 1 53.
civilization and progress. In his Rif?la he often contrasted Islam with the rival
69 RilJla, p . 1 54.
faith of Christianity, pointing out the historical reluctance of the Japanese to
embrace the faith of his colonial adversaries. 67 Such reluctance stemmed not
only from the foreign nature of Christianity and the allegedly inept methods
of the Christians. He asserted that it was born of the intense patriotism of the
Japanese 68 And as the Japanese appeared to be a people patriotically
obedient to their leaders, then the best way to convert them was naturally
from above, through their leading merchants, and men of politics and the
arts 69 Here he seemed a little triumphalist, having supposedly solved the
riddle of the conversion of the Japanese and claiming certain insights into the
Japanese mind. AI-JarjawI arrogantly assumed that, as "Easterners, " his
missionaries understood Japanese culture, unlike their Christian adversaries. 70
They were thus on the brink of a major coup. For unlike the Christians, their
converts were genuine-something that al-JarjawI asserted was proved by
the sadness on the faces of their followers when he and his two primary
70 RilJla, p. 155.
1 64
MICHAEL F. LAFFAN
71 Rif;la, p.209.
72 Rif;la, p.98.
73 Rif;/a, pp.201-3.
companions departed Japan with little warning 71
74 Kfunil, ai-Shams, pp.44-5.
proved that the Christian missionaries were but the harbingers of an invasion
75 Rif;/a, p.202.
76 Rif;la, pp. l O l , 230.
Al-Jarjawl regularly linked the activities of the Christians to the nature of
colonialism. He claimed that the events of the 1 900 Boxer Uprising in China
of a far more material kind. 72 And whilst the Japanese may have had absolute
freedom of religion-or so he believed, he asserted that this was a precarious
freedom, as missionaries would be followed by schools and finally gun­
boats 73 Doubtless, like Mu::;tafa Kamil before him, he would have approved
of the expulsion from Japan of the Christians by [Toyotomi] Hideyoshi in the
sixteenth century 74 And while he inaccurately portrayed contemporary
Christianity as a global plot, organized from Rome, he happily reported that
the Japanese government, and its leaders such as Count Katsura, were
"awake" to the ulterior motives of the Christian missionaries and their home
governments. In this respect, too, al-Jarjawl quoted what he said was a
Japanese expression: "Treat the mighty with respect, but be aware of their
intentions. " And he gladly related the repeated warnings that had been given
to the Missions through the official press:
Missionaries! When you arrived in Japan to spread the teachings of the
Christian religion and to open schools to teach vital contemporary sciences,
we praised your intention and thanked you for your humanitarian endeavours,
welcoming you and providing you with all means to stay among us in ease
and security, and with all the funds and honours accorded to the stranger
who comes to our land for the benefit of his fellow man [lit. "for the son of
his race"). Yet it was not long before we realised that you were abusing us
in this matter. So we drew up a policy [khitta) for you
to
follow, informing
you that this was official and that it appeared that you were ignorant of the
manners and customs of the land. [But) you were not at all apologetic for
what you had done and did not abide by the policy . . . . And now you have
contravened it again, and therefore the Government is giving you a final
warning lest you deviate once more, for you know what we permit you to
do, and what you may enjoy-lest you suffer the fate of your fellows in
China 75
Dark threats indeed, which shed a different light on the freedom of
religion in Japan. Perhaps al-Jarjawl eagerly awaited the expulsion of the
Christians, in the naive hope that the way would become clear for his own
missionaries to be despatched from Cairo's al-Azhar University in the future. 76
The Curiosities ofJapan and its Patriots
After the serious business of establishing a Muslim presence in Tokyo,
attending the Congress and cataloguing the success of their mission, al­
Jarjawl and his comrades were free to take in some of the sights of Japan. So
having stayed in modern Tokyo, they headed for the old imperial city of
Kyoto by train. And whilst al-JarjawI was captivated by the scenery, with its
165
MAKING ME!]I MUSLIMS
Figure 10
Five-storey pagoda
and bell-tower at
Sensoji Temple, Tokyo
spectacular mountains and the homes and temples of the "idolators" who
revered them, he could not help but return to his central theme of the
oppression of Muslims thoughout the world. This time he recounted their
mistreatment at the hands of the Russian government, as detailed by his
travelling companion Mukhli� Mabmud 77
On this trip, too, the party had an encounter with a bintu (bento) box,
seemingly for the first time:
After travelling past a few stops, we began to feel very hungry, not having
eaten anything apart from some bread and fish, and not having anything with
us. Then we saw a hawker at a station carrying containers resembling small
square wooden boxes about twenty centimetres long. We learned that within
them was food, so we bought six boxes-two each-for about four-fifths of
a piastre. We opened them to find on one side some delicious peppered rice
on which lay a piece of omlette made of egg-white with bread. And on the
other side was a piece of fish fried in oil, and some sort of green vegetable
of an unknown type. The rice was separated from the other things by a fine
piece of wood, and at the bottom of the box was something like large chick
peas, baked and salted. All of this delicious food was called "BintLI," like the
Turks call mixed vegetables "Turll." However the difference between the two
in succulence is very great! We had gained a great meal from the purchase
of these boxes, and discovered something completely unknown to us!78
77 Ri!?la, pp.204-5.
78 Ri!?la, p.205.
1 66
79
Riq/a, pp. 180-3.
0
8 Riq/a, p. l88.
8 1 Riq/a, pp. 198--200.
82 Riq/a, pp. 171-2.
83 Riq/a, pp. l72-4.
84 Riq/a, p.169.
85 Riq/a, p . l 7 1 .
86 Riq/a, p.195.
87 Riq/a, p.191.
88 Riq/a, pp. 183ff.
89 Riq/a, pp. 184-5.
M ICHAEL F. LAFFAN
Such an incident is almost a relief in the Riqla, with the earnest author ever
anxious to prove his convictions, and to outline a prescription for Muslim
advancement. Fortunately, too, it is not alone in the catalogue of comparisons,
and al-JarjawI was careful to include details of Japan's history, its religions and
even funerary ritesJ9 Further, it was whilst on a tour of the Directorate of
Education that al-JarjawI offered another amusing anecdote. Having been
conducted into the august presence of the Secretary of the Directorate, he and
his colleague Sayyid 'Abd al-Mun'im were bemused by the official's failure
to provide them with coffee, tea or even a biscuit! The Japanese, at least in
al-JarjawI's experience, appeared to place a great deal of emphasis on
speaking and listening rather than on the mere ceremonies of politeness 8o
Cultural observations are nonetheless rare and the didactic method of the
author is never far below the surface. When al-JarjawI paused to describe the
custom of story-telling in Japan, he emphasised that the mark of a good story­
teller was his absolute faithfulness to the original account, which he made
available in full to his audience in printed form should he be unable to
complete it 8 1 Here the subtle lesson to be learned is that excellence is
measured by the faithful retelling of a tale without alteration and by making
it available in written form. This conformed to reformist emphases on the
proper transmission of Islam. Only the original message (or what reformists
regarded as the original message) was to be reproduced without excessive
commentary. Muslims were then to complete their personal understanding
of Islam by reading these texts for themselves.
But the reformism of al-JarjawI, as is clear, was not confined to the revival
of textual knowledge. Japan was clearly a model for Muslims in a more
secular sense, and in particular in demonstrating the advantages of state­
sponsored patriotism and national development. As he saw them, the
Japanese were united adoringly behind their ruler and they demonstrated
absolute devotion to their homeland. And if, in his account, Russian women
seemed content with selling themselves into prostitution while their men
were at the front, Japanese women sought only to serve the nation that made
them widows.82 In like terms al-JarjawI presented the published letters of war­
heroes executed in Manchuria,83 the populist tales of patriots selling their
homes for the war effort,84 and of mothers who committed suicide in order
that their only sons could go to battle 85
AI-JarjawI saw patriotism everywhere: in the newspapers, which were not
paralysed by factional bickering as in Egypt86 ; in the munitions factories,
where armaments superior in design to those of Europe were produced87;
and in factories of a very special kind-the schools-where Japan's students
learned the practical skills of the modern age and to appreciate their own kind
of manifest destiny.88 It was this last facet ofJapanese society that particularly
interested al-JarjawI the educationalist, who stated that theJapanese recognized
education as the basis of madaniyya and had formed a working partnership
between the people and government to spread the modern sciences 89 But
167
MAKING MEIJI MUSLIMS
the science they learned along with repeated doses of patriotism was all
directed at putting Japan on a very aggressive course on the world stage,
90 Rii?la, pp. 185-6.
9 1 Rii?la, p. 193.
something of which al-JarjawI thoroughly approved. Thus, he quoted large
sections from the diary of a Russian War correspondent who had visited
Japanese schools, and had seen the students at work copying detailed maps
of Manchuria and Korea, calculating the provisions necessary to supply an
army, or reminiscing over the heroism of their success against Russia. 90
All this weighed upon al-JarjawI, who wished that his own Muslim people
would return to their pure origins and map out a destiny for themselves in
the modern world:
Look, dear reader, at this feliCity obtained by the nation of Japan. And,
together with me, raise your voice sincerely in prayer to God Almighty that
He might inspire the Muslim community in the same way that He has inspired
this modern nation [hadhihi al-umma al-mutamaddina] which has become
concerned with the sciences and knowledge, and which has expended its
effort on vital education, so that from its schools may graduate [people]
elevating a concern for their homeland and who have begun to be counted
among the best of men working for the felicity of their nation and lands . 91
Pan-Islamic and Pan-Oriental Themes
AI-JarjawI, the ardent pan-Islamist, reformist and patriot, was obviously
convinced that Japan offered the best example to the Egyptian people, and
indeed to Muslims everywhere. Yet it should not be taken for granted that
all Muslims found commonality with the Japanese. Certainly I doubt that the
Japanese had any sense of fellowship with Arabs and Turks at this stage.
Nonetheless al-JarjawI projected this sense in his Ri!?la, and constantly used
the language of Eastern fellowship to tie the fate of Muslims to the rise of
Japan. This he did both through the context of his book-being in effect the
tour of an Orient set against the Western and Christian colonial aggressor­
and through his writing of "the East" Cal-sharq) and its "Easterners" Cal­
sharqiyyun).92 Even his small party of missionaries embodied this ideal,
being made up of an Egyptian, a Tunisian, two Indians, a Tartar and a
Chinese. The conversion of "the Japanese" JaznIf completed the circle.
Subtle inferences are to be drawn, too, from his recollection of the poetry
of the Tunisian Mu):lammad 'AlI al-ZarabI, whom al-JarjawI likened to the
Egyptian I:I afi? IbrahIm, whose best known poem related the story of a
Japanese woman who left her lover to serve her nation at war with Russia.93
Japan had similarly inspired al-ZarabI, who wrote of the East and its Japan,
and then made comparisons with lost Islam:
They asked the East about its Japan,
Could it have surpassed the West without knowledge?
They asked about the case of our ancestors,
92
AI-Jarjawi was by no means the first to
employ this language. For example, writing
from Paris in 1 884, Jamal aI-Din al-Afghini
( 1838/9-97) and his then student Mul)ammad
'Abduh had devoted their influential journal
al-' Urwa al-wuthqa [The strongest bond] to
matters "that influence Easterners (al-sharq­
iYYln) in general a n d M u s l i m s i n
particular . . . its founders are men with
pressing concern for the East inspired by
actions of benefit for their homelands
(awtanihim) and their religious community
(millatihim)." See Salal) aI-Din al-Bustini,
ed., al- 'Urwa al-wuthqa wa 'l-thawra al­
tai?rfrfya al-kubra Ii 'I-sayyid jamal ai-din
ai-afghaniwa 'I-shaykh muqammad 'abduh
[The strongest bond and the great editorial
revolution ofSayyidJamal aI-Din and Shaykh
MuJ:!ammad 'Abduh] (Cairo: Dar al-'Arab,
1957), p.256.
93 Rii?la, p.77.
1 68
94 As cited in Ri1;/a, p.7S.
95 Ri1;/a, p.164.
96 Ri1;/a, p. l77.
97 Ri1;/a, p. lS3.
98 Ri1;la, pp.159--{)O. The qibla is the direction
towards Mecca's Ka'aba, the focal point of
Muslim prayer.
MICHAEL F. LAFFAN
For they had, through knowledge, achieved high station.94
In the same manner, al-JarjawI could unite in his narrative his musings on
the once ascendant Muslim world from Andalusia to India, his observations
on Islam in China, and his projection of a future MuslimJapan. The Japanese,
he argued, were naturally inclined to Islam because it was an Eastern faith.
For example, the 'Mikado' was allegedly predisposed to Islam because, as al­
JarjawI pointed out, he was an Eastern ruler like his Ottoman counterpart 95
AI-JarjawI even likened the Japanese to the Arabs of the Prophet's time
with their thirst for a rational faith. Further, he comparedJapan's women with
the Arabs, equating their patriotic fervour and the examples of those Bedouin
who had fought alongside their husbands in the defence of Islam.96 But this
did not mean that he advocated the same share of public life that the Japanese
women supposedly enjoyed, even if it was only manual labour in a factory.
Women were in most need of true education in the Holy Law, and from their
homes they would educate their children to create the surest foundations for
modern civilization and scientific excellence. And education, of itself, was
not the only guarantee of advancement. Rather, al-JarjawI pointed to the way
that it had been instituted by a national government as a patriotic endeavour.
Even Japan had once been a backward Oriental nation: "Indeed, before this
century, Japan had been like the rest of the nations of the East, afflicted by
ignorance, and not knowing anything of madaniyya worthy of mention."97
As I noted in the introduction, Japan had already succeeded in capturing
the imagination of parts of the Muslim world, even to the point where Malay
and Indian Muslims could conceive of a Japanese Muslim empire. Such
enthusiasm was obviously voiced in Egypt too. According to al-JarjawI, in his
chapter "What is Ordained for Japan's Islam," there were two schools of
thought regarding what Japan's conversion portended:
The first group says that the conversion of this nation will cause a great
revolution in the whole Muslim world, and that there would be no stopping
it having an effect on Islam [itself]. There is no need here to dwell on the
problems afflicting the holders of this opinion. The others say that the
conversion of Japan will bring back the past glory of this faith . . . [It will]
revive its lost attributes of power and greatness and implant in the hearts of
all the nations the love for Islam that existed in those bygone ages. They
adorn this by saying that Japan is the Eastern nation marked out for position
and greatness in the eyes of every state and government throughout the East
and the West. And if it converts, then there would be no stopping it from
organizing the Muslims of China and India together as one in order to create
a tripartite Islamic power on land and sea. Thus the whole Muslim word will
be empowered, and the Mikado will be like Saladin. Then all the independent
Islamic kingdoms will unite completely in the name of religion . . . with Tokyo
as the qibla of the Muslims in the Far East just as the Sublime Porte is to the
Muslims of the Near East 98
Of course al-JarjawI, who rejected the idea that Islam itself could change,
169
MAKING MElJI MUSLIMS
did not agree that Tokyo could become the physical qibla of Muslims. Yet
99 Rii?la, p . 1 6 1 .
h e certainly aligned himself with those Muslims who felt that a Muslim Japan
would revive a glorious past. If the East arose, then Islam would rise with it.
AI-JarjawI gladly continued with the observation that, "if Europe was already
frightened by the prospect of Japan's conversion, just imagine if it took over
China and India and became the major power in the Far East standing in the
path of the nations of the West!"99
Conclusion
On the whole, the RilJla is a curious piece of auto-orientalism with its
essentialist calls to an Eastern character stretching to the point where the
1 00 Rii?la, pp. 1 0 1 , 230.
1 0 1 Rii?la, p.232.
Japanese can be likened to the "pure" warrior tribes of pre-Islamic Arabia. But
1 02 For a recent study in this vein, see
central to al-JarjawI's project was the affirmation of a dualistic struggle for
Xiaomei Chen's collected articles on "occi­
dentalism. " Here, she attempts to show the
various ways in which Chinese writers have
produced a discourse marked by the
"combination of the Western construction
of China with the Chinese construction of
the West, " which has been used in turn by
the state both to support its form of
nationalism and to justify internal oppression.
See Xiaomei Chen, accidentalism: a theory
ofcounter-discourse inpost-Mao China (New
Yark: Oxford University Press, 1994).
world hegemony. This was the global conflict between Christianity and
Islam, with the latter to be led from Cairo educationally, and from Istanbul
politically. AI-JarjawI thus urged his own Khedive to play a role and that
Azharite missionaries be despatched to Asia to reinforce the lessons of the
Tokyo Congress. lOO But this very matter which the Japanese had adjudged a
political mission, al-JarjawI declared religious, and one of import for all
Easterners. 1 0 1 He believed strongly that the key to winning this conflict was
to claim Japan for Islam. Then the 'Mikado' could even be a new Saladin
against the forces of colonialism.
Today this seems "bombastic nonsense" indeed, but let us remember that
it was a hope that was widely voiced at the beginning of the twentieth
century. Muslims were constantly being made aware of their declining
fortunes on the world stage. This was felt all the more deeply in the shared
discourse of both Western and Eastern polemicists. In elevating the place of
the East in the past both were asking the same question: why are Muslims
in decline? For each group of writers religion was inextricable from culture
and in turn from modernity. And while some colonialists sneered about Islam
as being "hopelessly out of touch with the modern world," reformists like al­
JarjawI urged their fellows to re-examine the true roots of their faith and
infuse Islam-as the only truth capable of adapting to all times and
conditions-with the modern sciences and even patriotism.
In this way al-JarjawI's book may be seen as one more contribution to the
acceptance of the idea of the Orient that was based on contrast with the West.
Indeed, one of the anonymous reviewers of this article made the astute
observation that further work could be done on the non-Western complications
of Orientalism, and that al-JarjawI's book could be seen as "a case study of
the way that one society builds images of another for essentially internal
imperatives. "lo2 Whilst I am unable to pursue this line of enquiry at the
current time, I would welcome further studies in this area.
1 70
MICHAEL F. LAFFAN
Michael F. La:ffan
Melbourne Institute of Asian
Languages and Societies
University of Melbourne
Parkville Vic. 3052
and Division of Pacific and Asian History
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
[email protected]
Nonetheless, the precise impact of the Ri1Jla on its readership is hard to
determine. Both it and Mu��afa Kamil's aI-Shams al-Mushriqa were most
likely eclipsed by domestic events in Egypt as the nationalists rode a wave
of public anger over the Dinshaway verdicts. Moreover, even Ottoman pan­
Islam seemed doomed in 1 909 with the rise of the Young Turks. The]apanese
moment had come and gone, at least in Cairo and West Asia, but it would
linger on in Southeast Asia, to be reawakened when a different ]apan started
to assert claims of another form of pan-Asianism that was subordinate to its
own internal imperatives.
EAST ASIAN HISTORY 22 (2001 )